


The Tenth Floor

by Lise



Series: Remember This Cold [20]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: 5 Times, Accidental Voyeurism, Embarrassed Steve, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, POV Outsider, poor Steve did not ask for this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-09
Updated: 2015-11-09
Packaged: 2018-04-30 19:41:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5177276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lise/pseuds/Lise
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Overheard in Avengers Tower.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Tenth Floor

**Author's Note:**

> An anon asked me for "five times the Avengers overheard Steve and Loki going at it (and one time someone confronted him about it)" and lord was this fun to write as the result. Seriously, what a joy. 
> 
> I hope y'all aren't getting sick of me yet. I'm trying to pace myself on this whole crossposting thing.

Bruce had lived in a lot of places with thin walls and overheard a lot of things he’d rather not. As a rule, though, Avengers née Stark Tower wasn’t one of those places, and he’d gotten kind of used to not hearing anything weird through the walls.

The kitchen on the tenth floor wasn’t the closest one to R&D, but it was the one stocked with more than just coffee Bruce couldn’t drink anymore. He didn’t think too much about its proximity to their…houseguest.

Bruce didn’t think too much about their “houseguest” in general, which was a luxury he had, he knew, because Loki was going to keep as much distance between them as possible. Which was fine with Bruce, mostly, even if it sometimes felt a little weird that there was a person living in the same building that Bruce never saw. And knowing that Loki was still scared of him…maybe if Bruce was someone else that would be satisfying. It wasn’t, really.

But the tenth floor was a whole story away and Bruce hardly even remembered most of the time that it was situated under Loki’s suite.

Today he was midway through fixing himself a sandwich when he registered an odd thumping noise overhead. He paused, tilting his head and frowning. It was surprisingly rhythmic and regular, and Bruce would’ve thought treadmill but it wasn’t quite right for that. More of a  _ka-thunk, ka-thunk_ like a very loud rocking chair.

Bruce paused, knife poised over a tomato, and his ears started to burn. No, not a rocking chair. More like a bed moving. Rhythmically.

He could do the math.

At least, Bruce thought, trying to slice the tomato quickly and not listen, he couldn’t hear voices. He didn’t think he’d be able to look Steve in the eye if he could hear voices.

He vacated the kitchen in a hurry, deciding to forego the avocado. He didn’t want to tempt fate if things were going to get louder.

* * *

Thor was going to visit Loki.

There was still something faintly glorious and delightful about being able to think that and have it be true; not having to fear that he would suffer a burn just for touching the door. Things might be strained still at times, but Loki no longer seemed to hate him with the ferocity of before. It was an undeniable improvement, particularly since their return from Asgard.

Thor reached the door and raised his hand to knock, only to pause, tilting his head as his ears caught – something, through the door. A raised voice, and Thor stiffened, but…

No, he thought, hand falling. That did not sound like his brother’s voice when he was _upset._ In fact-

Loki’s voice cut off, and a moment later Thor heard a low moan, and then a breathless sounding cry that was certainly not one of dismay. His keen ears caught the barely audible sound of Steve’s laughter, and then Loki’s voice again, the only word a near shout of “Steve!” followed by another moan, louder. Thor jerked back, finally, blood rushing to his face and suddenly painfully self-conscious. It was not that he had not  _known,_ of course, but standing eavesdropping and actually hearing his brother and his shield-companion in the act of copulating…

Thor hurried quickly away, though beneath the embarrassment…he was tempted to smile. Loki deserved to be so pleased, and Thor had heard tales of his brother’s satisfied bed-mates in Asgard. He doubted Steve would be disappointed.

No, this was not a bad state of affairs.

Though perhaps next time Thor would inform Loki when he intended to visit. Being glad of Steve and Loki’s good fortune did  _not_ mean he wished to hear it.

* * *

Tony tended to pride himself on being hard to rattle. He was a fairly flexible, roll with the punches kind of guy. His initial perspective on the whole Loki thing had been a little less so, sure, but that was just looking out for Steve, trying to keep him from making horrible mistakes. Which, Tony wasn’t going to say it  _wasn’t_ a mistake but it hadn’t blown up  _yet,_ and currently Tony was the one who’d made the horrible mistake in sitting down to watch a movie on the tenth floor because  _apparently_ the boys upstairs were trying to give  _Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift_ pornographic sound effects. And the Tower’s walls were  _not_ thin.

Well, fuck Tony if he was going to move just because of a little obscenity. He’d seen worse. He’d walked in on Clint naked in the kitchen at three in the morning because apparently he’d assumed no one would be awake. That was worse than overhearing a little hanky-panky between Captain America and his ex-supervillain boyfriend. (Though Barton did have a surprisingly good body.)

Oh, god. That was – that was  _loud._ Whatever Steve was doing to Loki –  _bad thought, don’t go there –_ Loki certainly seemed to like it. And was apparently a screamer. Who knew?

Tony sank down into the couch and turned up the movie. Loki  _knew_ he was here, he thought irrationally. He was doing this on purpose. To – to make him uncomfortable, or rub his face in the fact that he was having fantastic, probably filthy sex with Captain America right over Tony’s head, or something. Well, he wasn’t going to chase Tony fucking Stark out of (one of) his own living room(s).

 _Fuck Loki,_ Tony thought savagely.  _And fuck Steve too,_ couldn’t he put a gag in it or something? Except that was a dangerous thought too, that led to picturing Loki gagged and maybe tied up and wondering who was fucking who right now and  _well_ Tony wasn’t necessarily  _opposed_ to voyeurism but he preferred to agree to it first, and he preferred to actually get to  _watch._

It couldn’t last that much longer. Could it? They had to finish soon, and then he could claim victory. Over who, Tony wasn’t sure, but it would still be a victory.

“Ah, ah,  _unnnh Steve!”_ Tony heard from overhead, practically howled. Tony hunkered down and tried not to visualize the sexual gymnastics that might be going on overhead. His face felt overheated. He hoped Steve’s endurance in bed wasn’t as good as it was everywhere else.

“Not worth it,” Tony said loudly to the room, and hurried out.

* * *

Clint wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but lately he’d been avoiding floors ten through twelve of the Tower. He knew why, too, though he didn’t think it too clearly even in his own head. It was stupid, he knew that. So – here he was on floor ten. Nothing special about it except the 60 inch plasma screen and he had all the season one DVDs of  _Golden Girls._ Simple. No reason to panic.

It was going fine, mostly. His heart wasn’t pounding and the urges to look over his shoulder passed quickly. Sure, it might’ve been a year since Loki moved in and he hadn’t tried anything yet, but tell that to Clint’s stupid fucked up brain.

(And then there was his stupid, even more fucked up brain that kept telling him to find a way to get Loki to take him back.)

Anyway.  _Golden Girls._

Someone screamed overhead.

Clint shot to his feet, groping for a weapon he didn’t have.  _An attack,_ he thought wildly.  _Someone’s attacking, or Loki just attacked someone-_

A long, drawn out wail that broke off suddenly, and another yell. Clint froze reaching for his phone. It didn’t… _sound_ like pain, exactly. Or fear. He pulled up his mental map of the layout of the eleventh floor (he’d memorized it, for no particular reason, really) and mapped it on top of where he was standing. If he had things right (and he did), Clint was standing about under the bathroom. Maybe the shower.

_Oh, fucking-_

Another noise, half shout, half cry, and it was clear this time now that Clint was listening that it definitely wasn’t  _pain_ he was hearing. Not an attack, either, and there was probably a lewd joke in there Clint didn’t quite have the heart to make.

His brain helpfully informed him that it didn’t sound like Steve, either.

Clint got up and left. He was not doing this. He’d come back for the DVDs later.

* * *

“So,” Natasha said, setting aside her cup of coffee and leaning forward. “I’m curious if it’s gotten around to you that people have started to avoid the tenth floor?”

Steve blinked, a little startled by the non sequitur. It took him a minute to figure out why it would even be relevant to him, and then he frowned. “Really? The  _tenth_ floor?”

Natasha’s smile was small and faintly amused, which didn’t seem quite appropriate to Steve. “Mmhm. I hadn’t heard about it – but I had noticed that it was a good place to go for some peace and quiet, where I could generally expect to be alone. Nice living room, sweet TV, even a few books I’m pretty sure Pepper put there…it makes a nice spot to get a little quiet.”

Steve was beginning to suspect there was a reason Natasha was telling this story that wasn’t just keeping him abreast of his friends’ feelings on the Loki situation. “Uh huh,” he said slowly, wondering if Loki had started going down there. He knew he got restless, but he didn’t think Loki would take the risk.

“So the other day I was settled in, reading  _Wolf Hall –_ have you read that one yet? It’s great – when I started hearing some odd noises.” Natasha blinked at him innocently, and Steve started to feel a little uncertain. “Can you guess what kind of noises?”

“Natasha,” Steve said carefully. “If there’s some kind of problem…”

“Oh, I don’t know if I’d call it a problem,” Natasha said. Her mouth did that funny little thing that happened when she was trying not to smile. “It certainly didn’t  _sound_ like a problem.”

Steve shifted, frowning. “What are you talking about?”

“Well,” Natasha amended. “It at least sounded like  _Loki_ was having fun.” Steve’s brain worked slowly. The other day…he couldn’t remember Loki doing anything particularly unusual. “It was Tuesday, if that helps,” Natasha added.

Tuesday. Tuesday had been fairly ordinary, a quiet day, Steve had worked out in the morning and then he’d been with Loki most of the afternoon…

Steve felt his face begin to warm. “Oh,” he said in a small voice.

Natasha’s smile bloomed, thoroughly wicked. “Mmhm. ‘Oh.’ There was a lot of that – and a lot of ‘ah’ and ‘Steve’ too, if I recall.” Steve’s entire face was hot, his ears burning, and he felt like he wanted to melt through the chair and possibly the pavement too.

“Natasha, I-” He started, and then cleared his throat, glancing around them to see if anyone was listening. He knew Loki could be – vocal, but he hadn’t realized just  _how_ loud it was.

“I don’t know if I should be more impressed with you or Loki,” Natasha mused.

“I’m  _so_ sorry,” Steve said, almost stumbling over the words. “I – oh, lord. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know – I didn’t realize – I try to keep it quiet but sometimes in the heat of the moment-” Oh,  _god,_ why had he said  _that?_ Natasha’s eyes widened into an expression of intense curiosity.

“Oooh,” she said. “Are you going to tell me more or are you going to leave it there?”

Steve felt like he was going to  _die._ He put his face in his hands and squeezed his eyes closed. “I didn’t mean – I’m not trying to say that-” He cut off, huffing.

Natasha almost cackled and reached out and patted him on the shoulder. “Oh, Steve. It’s fine, all right? I’m just giving you shit.” Steve raised his head and gave her a baleful look. “Though I would maybe think about…figuring something out to keep the volume down on your boyfriend.” She waggled her eyebrows and Steve groaned.

“You said…people have been avoiding the floor,” Steve said slowly. “Does that mean…”

“I don’t think I’m the only one who’s discovered that sound travels down, nope.”

Steve sank down in his chair and stared at the pavement. “Oh, God.”

Natasha patted his shoulder again. “Bear up there, soldier. This too shall pass.” Steve gave her another baleful look, and she grinned at him. “Though in the meantime…I might find somewhere else to do some quiet reading.”


End file.
